Privacy Policy
The short version
- Spaceful analyzes your photos and videos on your phone. They are never uploaded to us or anyone else. We have no servers that receive your data and no accounts.
- Nothing is deleted, moved or changed without your confirmation. Deleted items go to Android's trash, where you can restore them for about 30 days.
- Spaceful is free and shows ads from Google AdMob. Like most ads, they may use your device's advertising ID. Where the law requires it, you're asked for consent first and can change your choice at any time.
- No analytics, no tracking of your own, and we never sell data.
1. Who we are
Spaceful is an app that helps you free up storage by finding duplicate, similar, blurry and very large photos and videos, compressing big files, and cleaning up media saved by chat apps. In this policy "we" means the developer of Spaceful. Contact: weaponoid7798@gmail.com.
2. Photos, videos and audio
With your permission ("Photos and videos", and optionally "Music and audio"), Spaceful reads your media library through Android's MediaStore. It does not use "All files access".
- What it reads: file details (name, folder, size, date, dimensions, duration, favorite status) and small system thumbnails. To find exact duplicates it reads the bytes of files that share the same size.
- What it computes, on your phone: a visual fingerprint of each picture (to find look-alikes), sharpness and brightness scores (to find blurry or dark shots), and, for photos in a set of similar shots, a face check (eyes open, smiling) to suggest the best shot. Face checks use Google's ML Kit, which runs entirely on the device; no face data or images are sent anywhere, and no faces are identified or recognized.
- Storage: these results are kept in the app's private storage on your phone so the next scan is fast. They never leave the device and are deleted when you uninstall the app or clear its storage.
- Changes to your files: Spaceful only moves items to the trash, deletes, restores or compresses after you choose to, and Android shows its own confirmation unless you granted Spaceful "Media management" access. Compressing saves a new, smaller copy next to the original, keeping the original's date and location data; the original stays until you remove it.
3. Contacts (optional)
Only if you open Duplicate contacts and grant the Contacts permission, Spaceful reads names, phone numbers and email addresses on your phone to find people saved more than once. When you tap Merge, it links those entries into one contact using Android's own contact-linking (no data is deleted, and you can undo it with "Unlink" in your Contacts app). Contacts are never uploaded or stored by Spaceful.
4. Apps (optional)
The app manager lists apps you can open from your home screen, so you can uninstall ones you don't need. If you grant Usage access, it also shows how much space each app uses and when you last opened it. This information is read on your phone, shown to you, and not stored or sent anywhere. Uninstalling always goes through Android's own confirmation.
5. Information kept on your device
| Data | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Your settings (theme, trash preference, similarity level, size thresholds, ignored folders, reminders) | To work the way you set it up |
| Analysis results per photo/video (fingerprint, sharpness, brightness, face score, byte fingerprint for size matches) | Fast suggestions without re-analyzing everything |
| Photos you chose to keep and photos you already reviewed in Swipe | So they aren't suggested again |
| Cleanup history (date, category, number of items, bytes) | "Cleaned so far" and your progress chart |
| Compression results waiting for your decision | To offer "Move originals to trash" later |
Android backup: if Android backup is turned on, only your Spaceful settings may be included in your Google account backup or copied to a new phone. Analysis results and history are not backed up. Backup is handled by Android and Google under their own policies; you can turn it off in your phone's settings.
6. Advertising (Google AdMob)
Spaceful is free and supported by ads from Google AdMob. We show a small number of clearly labelled native ads ("Ad"): one between the suggestions on Home, two in the Tools list, and one card in each Swipe session that you swipe away like a photo (swiping it never keeps or deletes anything). There are no full-screen or pop-up ads. Ads never appear during a scan, inside photo grids, on the cleanup result screen or next to delete buttons.
- What AdMob may collect: your device's advertising ID, approximate location derived from your IP address, device and app information, and interactions with ads (for example views and taps), for showing, measuring and limiting ads and for fraud prevention. This happens under Google's policy on how it uses information from partner apps.
- Consent: in the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland and other regions where it's required, Spaceful shows Google's consent form (Google User Messaging Platform) before any ad is requested. You can change your choice anytime in Settings › Ad privacy choices.
- Your controls: you can reset or delete your advertising ID, or opt out of ads personalization, in your phone's Settings › Google › Ads (or Settings › Privacy › Ads).
- No photo, video, contact, app list or analysis result is ever shared with AdMob or any advertiser.
7. Other Google Play services
- ML Kit face detection runs on your device as part of Google Play services (see section 2).
- Google Play In-App Updates and In-App Review may show Google's update or rating dialogs. Ratings you submit go to Google Play.
These services are governed by Google's Privacy Policy. Spaceful contains no analytics or crash-reporting SDKs.
8. Permissions
- Photos and videos (and optionally Music and audio): to find and clean up media, as described in section 2. You can share only selected photos; Spaceful then works with those only.
- Media management (optional, Android 12+): lets Spaceful move items to the trash without Android asking you to confirm each time.
- Contacts (optional): for Duplicate contacts only (section 3).
- Usage access (optional): for app sizes and last-used dates in the app manager (section 4).
- Request uninstall: to open Android's uninstall dialog for apps you choose.
- Notifications (optional): for compression progress and an optional weekly reminder when new screenshots or photos pile up.
- Foreground service: so compressing videos keeps going if you leave the app, with a visible notification you can cancel.
- Internet: for ads and Google Play services only. Your media is never uploaded.
9. Your choices and deleting your data
- Withdraw permissions anytime in Settings › Apps › Spaceful › Permissions.
- Change your ads consent in Spaceful › Settings › Ad privacy choices (where available).
- Delete all Spaceful data with Settings › Apps › Spaceful › Storage › Clear storage, or by uninstalling the app. Items in Android's trash can be restored or deleted from Spaceful › Trash or your gallery app.
Because we don't hold any of your data on our side, there is nothing for us to delete or export on request. For data processed by Google for ads, see Google's Privacy Policy. You're welcome to contact us with any question.
10. Children
Spaceful is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country) and is intended for a general adult audience. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change how Spaceful handles data, we'll update this page and the effective date above, and, for significant changes, tell you in the app.
12. Contact
Questions or requests: weaponoid7798@gmail.com